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Popular Android phones subject to ‘Spearphone’ eavesdropping

Security researchers found that some Android phones are vulnerable to "Spearphone" eavesdropping. Devices affected include popular models such as the LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S6.

According to Threat Post:

“A new way to eavesdrop on people’s mobile phone calls has come to light in the form of Spearphone – an attack that makes use of Android devices’ on-board accelerometers (motion sensors) to infer speech from the devices’ speakers.

"An acronym for ‘Speech privacy exploit via accelerometer-sensed reverberations from smartphone loudspeakers,’ Spearphone was pioneered by an academic team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Rutgers University.”

The reason these particular models are susceptible to Spearphone attacks is due to the accelerometer being placed close to the speakers.

Airbus A350 software forces planes to reboot every 149 hours

Turning devices off and on again has proved to be a foolproof workaround in many tech situations. However, it’s not always ideal, especially if the device is an Airbus A350 that's responsible for ferrying large groups of people through the sky in a timely manner.

According to The Register:

“Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago.

In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent ‘partial or total loss of some avionics systems or functions’.”

If this issue sounds slightly familiar, it's because it first came to light in 2017. And while a fix has since been issued, we all know how many organizations procrastinate when it comes to patching.

But there's more going on in the world than that.

NYC considers law to protect citizen location data

New York City is thinking about laying down the (privacy) law. They’re looking into passing legislation that would prevent cellphone carriers and smartphone app vendors from selling location data of users within city limits.

According to Naked Security:

“The bill would ban anyone from collecting and sharing location data from mobile phones in the city, imposing harsh penalties for violators. It says:

"‘It is unlawful for a mobile application developer or a telecommunications carrier to share a customer’s location data where such location data was collected while the customer’s mobile communications device were physically present in the city.’”

Violating the proposed bill would lead to to fines. It could either cost a carrier $1,000 for each user’s data they collect, up to $10,000 per day.

And you can't not know this.

LightSail 2 propels forward dreams of exploring the universe

The LightSail 2, a crowdfunded spacecraft built for the Planetary Society, has unfurled its solar sails this week. This photon-push-powered form of space travel uses a new kind of technology to help us explore the universe without the need for traditional fuel.

According to The New York Times:

“Engineers in California pressed a button on Tuesday that unfurled the sails on a satellite that can be steered around Earth, advancing long held hopes for an inexhaustible form of spaceflight and expanding the possibilities for navigating the voids between worlds.”

It’s also interesting to note that LightSail 2 is roughly the size of a loaf of bread and being launched mostly for test purposes. But eventually, we could launch much larger craft that take advantage of the same technology. Speaking of the tech, watch the video below to hear Bill Nye explain this new form of space propulsion.

Imagine being on a plane and hearing the pilot over the intercom: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. In a few moments we will reboot the plane. This will only take a moment, during the reboot your entertainment system will be unavailable and the plane will go into free fall. Please return your seat into the upright position, fold up your tray table and fasten your seat belt."

Oh boy, I'm flying on an Airbus to California in September ...with Alaska Airlines... I bet they haven't patched their fleet. Also, while I feel like the fine that NYC would impose is a decent idea, I also feel that the end-user should also be able to choose whether or not they want their location shared with third parties or not - obviously in a way that is not in the "fine print" like it may be now.

Being able to travel the universe without fuel sounds incredible. I have only one question, how fast can it travel? Any place interesting enough to require an inexhaustible method of propulsion is light years away. We need to also make this transportation either fast or big enough to support several generations of people. I know we need to take one step at a time but if the step is in the wrong direction, maybe we need to take a step back and evaluate if this will ever be relevant in the grand scheme of things.

Spearphone: Interesting but awfully complicated..Maybe this will stop those people who have speakerphone conversations in public because for some reason holding the phone normally is too complex.

Airbus Reboot: At least the airlines give you some idea what type of plane you will be flying on - I'll stick with my Air Canada thanks! I can't imagine having to do a reboot of a plane..

NY Location Data - I wonder how that will work out for them when these big corporations start lobying to be allowed to watch our every move. I have very little faith that they will ever be able to pass that law.

LightSail 2: That is SO cool! Im also curious to see how those sails will deal with space junk